I'm building a file cabinet case 40" tall (3 drawers), 27" deep. I'm thinking of making it out of solid cherry which would be dovetailed together at the top. But I'm not sure what to do (what I can get away with) at the bottom. Does the case need to have a bottom, or could I make it out of three solid wood panels (plus the plywood back) and just put 1.5" wide bars across the front as drawer dividers and maybe a second set of 1.5" bars across the middle to discourage the sides from warping?
I'd put a bottom in, if for nothing else than stiffening. It could be something like a couple of pieces of 3/8" plywood glued together. Use
1x1 pieces to attach. You need to have maybe 2" at the bottom below the bottom drawer anyways, so that would fit nicely. Also give you something to hang some glides or casters on to make the sucker easier to move (you will want to do that!). Give us a photo of the final results, if you could.
My own feeling is that if he comes up with a structure that actually holds up he should write an article for FWW or somebody, because I've _never_ seen a multidrawer wooden filing cabinet that wasn't coming apart after a few years.
My friend's bicycle shop has (4) white oak oak file cabinets that are at least 60 years old, possibly 80. Before it became a bike shop in 1997, the 4 story building was a plumbing and heating supplier for almost 100 years.
His file cabinets are solid wood, with the top and bottom finger jointed to the sides. The previous owners were NOT easy on the stuff, so it hasn't been babied. The cabinets are currently stuffed with the bicycle shop's records, and still in daily use.
What do you mean by "Use 1x1 pieces to attach"? None of the ways I can think of for attaching a plywood bottom seem like they would really help with rigidity since the solid wood case has to be allowed to move around the plywood. (The ways I can think of are plywood in dados and glued only at the front, or plywood attached like a table top with wood or metal clips in a groove, or plywood attached to rails which are screwed to the case through elongated screw holes.)
If you want to see "work in progress" pictures you can take a look at the three drawers here:
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The eventual plan is to have the cherry case with one piece curly maple drawer fronts. (I have a wide piece of curly maple.)
My thoughts on the bottom were that the "bottom" would be two inches off the floor and the sides of the case would extend down the rest of the way. This means the bottom would have to be in dados or sliding dovetails. If I do dados I'm relying on the glue to keep it together. (I could reinforce the dado with nails, I guess.) I'm not sure 2 foot long sliding dovetails are something I want to try to cut--I prefer hand tools and don't know how I could make such a joint. I could dovetail a bottom on but then I'd have to do something to raise it a couple inches off the floor, some kind of stand that the case would sit on and could take the wood movement of the case ... and all the weight.
IME, you will probably want to use your most undesirable pieces of primary wood for the bottom panel, but use the same wood and dovetail/fingerjoint all four sides of your casework. You will be glad that you did.
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